Prof. Dr. Md. Wasiul Islam :
The theme of World Tourism Day this year was ‘Tourism and Rural Development’ which is very relevant in the context of Bangladesh especially considering Covid-19 pandemic situation. People of rural areas are suffering more than urban population for their livelihood in this ongoing pandemic.
Rural tourism is a growing form of tourism in the world. It is also becoming popular in Bangladesh considering the nature of our rural destinations, people, and profit. Most of the nature-based tourism destinations of Bangladesh are situated in the rural areas. This is one of the types of tourism which means visiting to rural (non-urban) areas for the purpose of leisure and recreation. It refers to all types of tourism activities in a rural area which depend on the overall settings of the area which may attract tourists from home and abroad.
There are different types of tourism (‘ecotourism’, ‘responsible tourism’, ‘environment-friendly tourism’, ‘green tourism’, ‘rural tourism’, ‘agritourism’, ‘farm tourism’, ‘soft tourism’, ‘alternative tourism’,’wilderness and forest tourism’, ‘cultural tourism’, ‘archaeological tourism’, ‘blue (coastal and marine) tourism’, etc.) which are potential to develop in the rural areas of Bangladesh depending on their contexts.
Such tourism types can contribute to reduce rural poverty or improve socio-economic and environmental situation. Most of the upazillas of Bangladesh have some sorts of tourism attractions which have either cultural (heritage) or/and natural/religious/archaeological significance carrying local and/or national importance. Many of these attractions along with the authentic rural settings of Bangladesh are not familiar to most of the young generation of the country which make rural tourism potential to them along with the international tourists who are also interested to these attractions.
These tourists may have various active and passive opportunities for canoeing, kayaking, swimming and other water sports, fishing/angling, trekking, hiking, cycling, fruits picking, cooking, having local dresses/food/drinks and sharing the experience with local culture/traditions/lifestyles/livelihood styles, experiencing the nature including wildlife watching, health activities, and other various authentic activities.
These tourism activities are capable to facilitate and improve various economic transections via providing various tourism products and services (like accommodation, cuisine, tour guiding, transportation, guiding, selling other local products and services) to these tourists. Rural tourism encourages small and medium sized local entrepreneurships which are potential to reduce unemployment problem of Bangladesh. Moreover, rural tourism provides opportunities for infrastructural development, refurbishment/re-use of abandoned properties, retaining rural population in their areas, and so on.
Rural tourism can also improve the interactions between the host and guest (tourists) which have immense intangible values (enriched tourism experience) to both of them by contributing local cultural preservation, fostering the sense of local pride, self-esteem, identity, and so on. Rural tourism can enhance the awareness on environmental education to be friendly with our surroundings that can promote biodiversity conservation of forests, water bodies and other natural areas.
Eventually, rural tourism also facilitates to reduce inequalities, inequity, disparity, deprivation, gender disparity (most notably for women and youth), and so on by improving democratic culture and fostering empowerment of an area.
All these potential contributions of rural tourism ultimately can fasten the process of rural development along with other sectoral development. Here, the issue of sustainable development warrants to ensure carefully so that tourism can serve the rural areas in a sustainable way by using its various resources otherwise it may be a disaster to us.
However, development through tourism can help the rural communities to recover such crisis after the pandemic is over and tourism restrictions are fully lifted. It is estimated by UNWTO that by 2050, 68% of the world population will live in urban areas, while 80% of those currently living in ‘extreme poverty’ live outside of towns and cities. So, we need special actions to address such poverty level. Rural tourism might be one of the ways to address the issue.
Despite immense opportunities of rural tourism particularly in Bangladesh, there are many potential threats which can challenge the successes of rural tourism to be sustainable. There should have an effective plan to conserve and preserve all types of resources of that destination particularly the natural and cultural resources (safeguarding habitat and endangered species), good understanding for both tourists and local hosts. It also needs to control economic leakages, local price inflation, distortion of local employment structure and local culture, seasonal patterns of tourism demand, littering and other environmental pollution, traffic and tourist congestion, and so on.
Currently, Bangladesh Tourism Board (BTB) is implementing an initiative by which they are exploring the existing and potential tourism attractions from every district of Bangladesh. After analysing the collected information BTB can effectively plan to develop the rural areas through the development and promotion of tourism sector which can be a great source of holistic development of the country.
Moreover, such development plan should also be integrated with on-going tourism master plan preparation. BTB (MoCAT) also needs to work closely with Bangladesh Forest Department (under MoEFCC), Rural Development and Co-operative Division (MoLGRD), along with other relevant departments, divisions, and boards.
Additionally, competent manpower, use of ICT, research on rural tourism and its reflection in tourism planning and implementation are treated as vital to ensure sustainable development through rural tourism in Bangladesh.
The theme of World Tourism Day this year was ‘Tourism and Rural Development’ which is very relevant in the context of Bangladesh especially considering Covid-19 pandemic situation. People of rural areas are suffering more than urban population for their livelihood in this ongoing pandemic.
Rural tourism is a growing form of tourism in the world. It is also becoming popular in Bangladesh considering the nature of our rural destinations, people, and profit. Most of the nature-based tourism destinations of Bangladesh are situated in the rural areas. This is one of the types of tourism which means visiting to rural (non-urban) areas for the purpose of leisure and recreation. It refers to all types of tourism activities in a rural area which depend on the overall settings of the area which may attract tourists from home and abroad.
There are different types of tourism (‘ecotourism’, ‘responsible tourism’, ‘environment-friendly tourism’, ‘green tourism’, ‘rural tourism’, ‘agritourism’, ‘farm tourism’, ‘soft tourism’, ‘alternative tourism’,’wilderness and forest tourism’, ‘cultural tourism’, ‘archaeological tourism’, ‘blue (coastal and marine) tourism’, etc.) which are potential to develop in the rural areas of Bangladesh depending on their contexts.
Such tourism types can contribute to reduce rural poverty or improve socio-economic and environmental situation. Most of the upazillas of Bangladesh have some sorts of tourism attractions which have either cultural (heritage) or/and natural/religious/archaeological significance carrying local and/or national importance. Many of these attractions along with the authentic rural settings of Bangladesh are not familiar to most of the young generation of the country which make rural tourism potential to them along with the international tourists who are also interested to these attractions.
These tourists may have various active and passive opportunities for canoeing, kayaking, swimming and other water sports, fishing/angling, trekking, hiking, cycling, fruits picking, cooking, having local dresses/food/drinks and sharing the experience with local culture/traditions/lifestyles/livelihood styles, experiencing the nature including wildlife watching, health activities, and other various authentic activities.
These tourism activities are capable to facilitate and improve various economic transections via providing various tourism products and services (like accommodation, cuisine, tour guiding, transportation, guiding, selling other local products and services) to these tourists. Rural tourism encourages small and medium sized local entrepreneurships which are potential to reduce unemployment problem of Bangladesh. Moreover, rural tourism provides opportunities for infrastructural development, refurbishment/re-use of abandoned properties, retaining rural population in their areas, and so on.
Rural tourism can also improve the interactions between the host and guest (tourists) which have immense intangible values (enriched tourism experience) to both of them by contributing local cultural preservation, fostering the sense of local pride, self-esteem, identity, and so on. Rural tourism can enhance the awareness on environmental education to be friendly with our surroundings that can promote biodiversity conservation of forests, water bodies and other natural areas.
Eventually, rural tourism also facilitates to reduce inequalities, inequity, disparity, deprivation, gender disparity (most notably for women and youth), and so on by improving democratic culture and fostering empowerment of an area.
All these potential contributions of rural tourism ultimately can fasten the process of rural development along with other sectoral development. Here, the issue of sustainable development warrants to ensure carefully so that tourism can serve the rural areas in a sustainable way by using its various resources otherwise it may be a disaster to us.
However, development through tourism can help the rural communities to recover such crisis after the pandemic is over and tourism restrictions are fully lifted. It is estimated by UNWTO that by 2050, 68% of the world population will live in urban areas, while 80% of those currently living in ‘extreme poverty’ live outside of towns and cities. So, we need special actions to address such poverty level. Rural tourism might be one of the ways to address the issue.
Despite immense opportunities of rural tourism particularly in Bangladesh, there are many potential threats which can challenge the successes of rural tourism to be sustainable. There should have an effective plan to conserve and preserve all types of resources of that destination particularly the natural and cultural resources (safeguarding habitat and endangered species), good understanding for both tourists and local hosts. It also needs to control economic leakages, local price inflation, distortion of local employment structure and local culture, seasonal patterns of tourism demand, littering and other environmental pollution, traffic and tourist congestion, and so on.
Currently, Bangladesh Tourism Board (BTB) is implementing an initiative by which they are exploring the existing and potential tourism attractions from every district of Bangladesh. After analysing the collected information BTB can effectively plan to develop the rural areas through the development and promotion of tourism sector which can be a great source of holistic development of the country.
Moreover, such development plan should also be integrated with on-going tourism master plan preparation. BTB (MoCAT) also needs to work closely with Bangladesh Forest Department (under MoEFCC), Rural Development and Co-operative Division (MoLGRD), along with other relevant departments, divisions, and boards.
Additionally, competent manpower, use of ICT, research on rural tourism and its reflection in tourism planning and implementation are treated as vital to ensure sustainable development through rural tourism in Bangladesh.
(Dr. Wasiul Islam is Professor, Forestry and Wood Technology
Discipline, Khulna University.
E-mail: [email protected])
